Midterm Material Flashcards
(41 cards)
Australian Ballot
Secret Ballot - so people could vote in privacy and avoid being harassed due to their votes. It’s implementation would greatly protect voters.
A ballot that does not only show certain candidates but all of them and a ballot that would be universal across states…
Balance of Slave States VS Free States
Balance of power in Congress between slave and free states
- Missouri Compromise (1820) where there is a balance from states
- Missouri (Slave) Maine (Free)
- Years later Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.
Later on for Spanish War…
-New added states (TX, CA, AZ) divided over whether these new states should be assigned whether to be Slave or Free states, or whether they would be granted the choice to become whatever they wanted to be.
Black Codes
Black Codes - Slavery “Southern style” (post civil war)
•Restarted slavery by banning people from renting or owning land (cropsharing, red lining (later on the years), assembling voting, interracial marriage, etc.
•Rise of loitering, vagrancy, idleness laws (Criminalization of black and poor) relates to the modern Jim Crow laws that refer to encarceration)
• President Johnson says southern states can still join the states
*Jim Crow Laws…?
Checks and Balances
Counterbalancing influences by which an organization or system is regulated, typically those ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of individuals or groups.
Each branch is impeached by the other two. (Judicial, Electorial, Legislative)
E L (veto/overwrite)
L J (impeach/confirm)
J E (judicial review/appoint)
Supreme Court may check Congress by declaring a law unconstitutional. The power is balanced by the fact that members of the Supreme Court are appointed by the POTUS. Those appointments have to be approved by Congress. So just a check in between states/departments to make sure none of these are using their power unlawfully.
Civil Rights Act
1964
• Main provisions:
– Banned segregation in education and public accommodations (unfunded mandate).
– No federal funds for states/agencies that discriminate (shared federalism at work).
– Barred job discrimination on the basis of race, religion, and gender. Create EEOC to enforce.
-Helped overcome collective problems
Compromise of 1850
Mexican-American War
-Political confrontation of which state should be what (break of Second Party System - Democrats (A. Jackson) VS Whigs
• Texas is slave state
• California is free state
• Territories (New Mexico, Utah) get to decide on their own
• Part of bargain is the Fugitive Slave Law
– Escaped slaves must be returned to slaveowner by law, even from North (story of 12 Years a Slave) – Harriet Tubman and Underground Railroad
The “old story” of Reconstruction
-The evil Northeners
-Slaves were evil (book about black man raping a white woman)
…
Tragedy of the commons
When people all have access to the same common resource but are not too considerate of taking care of it because their effort is worth nothing comparing it to the bigger picture. Then everyone suffers
(ex- water)… and the English sheep example.
Solution: everyone is held accountable for their own portion of the land.
Virginia Plan (as opposed to the New Jersey Plan)
VA: get seats in the HoR by number of people in the state (they get majority as they are one of the biggest states)
NJ Plan: called for two houses of Congress both elected with apportionment according to population - bicameral. At least one vote per stat
CT:
Haitian Revolution
THREAT OF SLAVE REVOLT (more slaves than white people in some parts)
-Haitian revolution (majority black slave plantation – French colonists)
•big freak out – Slavery is a major part of the American economy
-Slave resistance
•Destruction of property, sabotage plantation work
•Black art, culture, speech (started a legacy throughout time)
Fiscal Federalism
Part of nationalization where the govt. has more power over the states.
The federal government regulates, subsidizes, taxes, provides goods and services, and redistributes income. In federal systems like that of the United States, fiscal policies have also sought to empower the states through deregulation.
Money is distributed top down (gvt to states) (dad > mom > children) distribute money through federal grants.
Codependency is important as it builds intergovernmental relations. More efficient way of distributing money (in accordance to the 10th amendment).
TESLA Example
• States compete with each other to attract rich residents and corporations
– Companies pit state governments against each other to see who will provide the most giveaways
• Example: Tesla gets $1.25 billion in tax breaks/subsidies from Nevada
• National government increasingly faces this too as corporations become transnational
Medicaid expansion under the ACA (Obamacare)***
• Medicaid Expansion in ACA (NFIB vs. Sebelius, 2012)
– Law requires states to expand Medicaid (funded by natl govt) or lose all Medicaid funding.
– Court rules that this is too coercive. Does not leave states with a choice.
– Result: Republican states refuse to expand Medicaid and 17,000 people die each year due to lack of health insurance
-First suggested by Nixon. Implemented in MA by Mitt Romney. Blocked by Congree with Obama
-Free rider problems. Everyone must be part of it.**
Necessary and Proper Clause
– Necessary and Proper Clause, Elastic Clause (McCulloch v. Maryland)
- The elastic cause grants congress the power to create laws that are necessary and proper
- Granting Congress the power to pass all laws necessary and proper for carrying out its list of enumerated powers (powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution
- Helps understand federalism = division of power between the Federal Government and the states (defined by the US constitution)
- States power rests in the 10th amendment (reserved powers)
Party in government
Alliance of current officeholders cooperating to shape public policy.
Party in the electorate
– Composed of those voters who identify with the party and regularly vote for its nominees.
Party organizaion
– Dedicated to electing the party’s candidates.
– Consultants, staff, donors, former officeholders, etc.
Reconstruction Amendments
13: Ban Slavery
14: Equality under the Law
15: No state can deny right to vote on account of “race, colour, previous condition of servitude”
The New Deal Coalition (Fifth Party System) **
• New Deal Coalition is dominant; Democrats win everyone except wealthy (FDR)
- When parties start shifting again and the Democratic Party (led by FDR)
- Party systems are when there is a change of how the political parties are assigned/defined throughout American History.
- Increase in varied demographic support for politics (especially for Democrats): Catholic and Jewish immigrants in cities, Union workers, Intellectuals (higher education), Black people (especially in Northern cities), Latinos and Filipinos on West Coast, Poor farmers, and Southern segregationists (“Solid South”)
Fifth Party System refers to the period of the New Deal and FDR (Great Depression)
- System dominated by the Democratic Party.
- Democrats being referred/established as the Social Liberals and GOP as the Social Conservatives.
- Debate on whether America is still in the 5th Party System or in the 6th one
- GOP was split into liberals (bit more successful till 1980) and conservatives.
- Nixon appealed to both GOP branches (won his election through “southern strategy” aka showing support against black people. Got those really icky southern GOP supporters (said to be responsible for why GOP is so strong in the South - through very conservative ideologies)
Three compromises in ratifying the Constitution
- Slavery
- Small states vs.big states
- Populism
Compromises were necessary to ratify the Constitution
Three ways the Civil Rights Movement was cut short (The New Jim Crow) **
• Fairy Tale story: MLK had a dream that black kids and white kids would play together
– Brownv.Board,CRA,VRA:
Problem solved!
• Real story: MLK wanted to end “materialism, racism, and militarism,” but was cut short
“The New Jim
Crow?”
• Answer: Mass Incarceration
– U.S. imprisons more people than all other countries, including dictatorships
– More black people under correctional control (jail, prison, parole) than enslaved in 1850
• Section V of Voting Rights Act dismantled by SCOTUS
– Now states don’t need federal approval to change election laws, even when it impacts people of color
• Result: Voter ID Laws in Republican- controlled states (discourages many people from voting- especially minorities
Virginia Plan (as opposed to the New Jersey Plan)
VA: get seats in the HoR by number of people in the state (they get majority as they are one of the biggest states)
– Bicameral legislature, with seats apportioned by population
– National government can veto state laws
– Executive (POTUS) appointed by lower house of legislature
NJ Plan
– One legislative chamber
– Representatives selected by state legislatures
– Equal # of representatives per state
– National government only has power to tax and regulate commerce
Way to increase incentive for collective action (or overcome collective action problems)
Appealing to emotions, morality, duty
– Why people join the military
• Offer selective incentives or make goods excludable
– You get a cookie if you clean the house
– You must be part of the union if you take the job
• Monitoring, enforcement, coercion
– You go to jail if you don’t pay your taxes
– You get kicked out of the house if you don’t clean
Overcoming CAP (Collective Action Problems)
- Increase p? (but c will always be low for large groups)
- Increase b? (but be is always high!)
- Decrease c? (Yes!)
- New term for social benefits of participating is R = p*b – c + s
- Decreasing C: Selective incentives (you can only get the public good if you participate (very hard to do) ex. paying $5 teacher union member to potentially getting higher wages), social media, organisation (boycotting, share rides, free food, supporting each other, etc.)
- Increasing S: Organizations: Social pressure and messaging (ex. church groups, unions)
Brown (John Brown) v. Board of Education
Desegregating the school system - end of the legal segregation of public schools
-the story of little rock??
1950s
-Einsenhower (R) sends the National Guard to help with this.
_____ v. _____ (landmark United States Supreme Court Cases)
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Another landmark Supreme Court Case of the US (worst actually)
-Denying citizenship to African American slaves. Impacted the Balance of Slave and Free states- supreme court cant say anything about what each state can be (slave or free)
